Sorry -- my experience in this area is rather outdated. I was most active in in the Space Shuttle design phase (the 1970s):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lutus

That was why I directed my earlier comments to young people. :)

If someone was interested in battery science how would they get started?

I would start by acquiring a deep education in physics and materials science.

If you're not going to college there are two things you'll need to do as an initial step; read a book & get exposure to the technology.

Book: DeGarmo's Materials and Processes in Manufacturing [1] is practically the introductory bible for Engineering students, find a second hand copy and fast skim over all the chapters and then start drilling deeper. It's a good first step as if you can't find any parts of DeGarmo that interest you and spur you to learn further then this is not the path for you.

Exposure: Without a degree your path in is to pretty much become a field cog in a larger organisation; Army / Navy / Airforce / Mining Fleet Operations / Telcoms company that spans at least a state, etc. Once you've done your time lugging batteries / installing batteries / appeasing customers / dogs bodying you need to leverage your way closer in to where development takes place.

It will be hard at times seem well nigh impossible to make any in roads in a field like this without a degree - rare individuals with the right practical background and an obsessive interest in material properties do sneak through now and again.

Companies or organisations that offer assisted study / in house training can help. Moving to other locations in the world with cheaper education or more job opportunities may help. Having a relevant trade skill (outstanding electrician) coupled with metallurgy skills (home plating baths & furnaces & meters) could help you along.

Obsessively read anything that relates to electron flows and chemical solutions and metal interactions . . .

[1] http://www.amazon.com/DeGarmos-Materials-Processes-Manufactu...

( Can you get it cheaper? - A challenge )

Not a stupid question at all. I would listen to Mark Twain, who said, "I have never let my schooling interfere with my education."

Also consider the astonishing number of education-dropout billionaires:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_college_dropout_billion...

I'm a former NASA engineer responsible for much man-rated spaceflight hardware, I wrote software that helped get Viking to Mars, I wrote some best-seller programs in the 1980s and retired at the age of 35, and I'm a seventh-grade dropout.

This doesn't mean anyone can drop out and become successful. It means success and schooling aren't strongly correlated.